Lezmond Mitchell, the only Native American on federal death row, was put to death Wednesday despite objections from tribal leaders who said the execution violated tribal sovereignty.
Mitchell, 38, was convicted in of the 2001 murder of Alyce Slim and her 9-year-old granddaughter Tiffany Lee. Navajo Nation leaders had objected to the federal death penalty, as Mitchell committed the murders on tribal land, the Associated Press reported.
“Today’s decision means we will never know for sure whether anti-Native American bias influenced the jury’s decision to sentence Lezmond Mitchell to death. Yet we do know that Mr. Mitchell’s death sentence represents an unprecedented infringement on the sovereignty of the Navajo Nation, which has steadfastly opposed his execution,” attorneys Jonathan Aminoff and Celeste Bacchi said in a statement released Wednesday morning.
Mitchell was pronounced dead by lethal injection Wednesday evening at the federal prison in Terra Haute, Ind., where all federal executions are carried out.
Mitchell and an accomplice, Johnny Orsinger, stabbed Slim 33 times after hitching a ride in her pickup truck. Mitchell then drove the truck into the mountains and killed Slim’s granddaughter, according to his confession. He was convicted in 2003.
Orsinger, a minor at the time of the crimes, was not eligible for the death penalty. He pleaded guilty and is serving life in prison.
In addition to sovereignty concerns, Mitchell’s attorneys have said he wished to participate in peacemaking, a Navajo dispute-resolution tradition. Mitchell was forbidden to contact Slim’s or Lee’s families under a court order and was unable to initiate the peacemaking process.
The majority of the victims’ families said they supported the execution proceeding. Tiffany Lee’s father Daniel told the AP the tribal leaders did not speak for him.
“I speak for myself and for my daughter,” he said.
Michael Slim, Alice Slim’s grandson, however, said he opposed the execution after initially supporting it.
“We are all guilty of sin, so it’s not fair for us to condemn someone,” he said. “It’s not my job to say ‘we should kill him.’”
Slim had reportedly written to Mitchell on death row but never received a reply.
Mitchell is the fourth federal prisoner executed in 2020 since the federal government resumed the use of the death penalty under President Trump. Two more, Christopher Andre Vialva and William Emmett LeCroy, are slated to be executed in September.